Indorayon okays Rp 80 dividend

JAKARTA (JP): Shareholders of PT Inti Indorayon Utama, a publicly listed pulp and rayon producer based in North Sumatra, approved yesterday the March distribution of dividends of Rp 80 (3.4 U.S. cents) per share to be made final.

The company said in a statement made available here that it saw its net profits increase by 109 percent to Rp 135 billion last year, from Rp 64.6 billion in 1994.

The company paid the dividends to shareholders on March 30.

Inti Indorayon's president, Polar Yanto Tanoto, told the shareholders at yesterday's meeting in Medan, North Sumatra, that the company had designed a business strategy to improve its efficiency.

Polar explained that, as part of the strategy, Inti Indorayon had established a dissolving pulp mill which became an integrated producer of dissolving pulp and rayon.

"Through the new facility, we'll have the flexibility to produce paper and dissolving pulp according to market fluctuations," he said.

To support the production of pulp and rayon, Inti Indorayon plans to develop a chemical industry.

"We're currently conducting a study on the development," Polar said.

He said that Inti Indorayon will focus its operations on three core businesses -- pulp, rayon and related chemical products. "In noncore businesses, we'll cooperate with partners or we'll just transfer them to other entities," he said.

He cited as an example the company's power plant, which will be transferred to a company specializing in the energy sector.

Polar saw the strategy as crucial for improving the efficiency and strengthening the competitiveness of Inti Indorayon in facing trade liberalization among members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) under its ASEAN Free Trade Area agreement. (13)